Why then did Jefferson say, "I trust that there is not a young man now living in the United States who will not die a Unitarian" Talk to any classical Unitarian and they will say something along the line of Jefferson's statement of being a sect unto himself. The Jefferson Bible is classic Unitarianism as much as such a thing exists. 85 posted on 3/17/02 10:20 PM Pacific by LarryLiedI'll charitably grant that the Jefferson Bible was "as much Unitarian as such a thing exists". As far as his personal beliefs went, I will charitably grant Jefferson to the Unitarians, even though he NEVER actually claimed that church mambership for himself.
But Jefferson's kind words for the Unitarians in 1822 does absolutely NOTHING to support the idea that he was "proseltyzing for the Unitarians" in the Virginia Religious Freedom Statute of 1786 (which was as much the creation of the Calvinist James Madison as it was the Confused Thomas Jefferson). Good grief, man, that is THIRTY-SIX years of a man's life!! Thirty-six years ago I was not yet a Calvinist; heck, I was not even born.
In 1822, Jefferson may have, at the end of his life, turned out to be a "unitarian" (or at least, somewhere in their relative vicinity). But in 1786, he was certainly not "proselytizing for the Unitarians". The idea is absurd.
I didn't mean to claim he was pushing Unitarianism earlier. The church wasn't even established officially until 18 something. But the general tenets of Unitarianism he did subscribe to most of his life. As you know, Unitarians were all over the place. They were dissenters and easier to describe by saying what they were against than what they were for. Unitarians mutated a lot(look at them today) and they had no creed as Catholics do. Most all of them admitted Christ was the most perfect moral teacher the world had known, relied on reason, not revelation, on works, not grace and didn't believe in orginal sin.
No wonder so many said, and say, they were not Christians, eh?